Have you done it? Great – thanks! To be sure, this is shocking and crazy that Saveur would recognize us, especially in the company of the other nominees. Is “honored” the right word? Perhaps “dumbfounded”. But there are three reasons why Jet City Gastrophysics should be voted Best Food Blog. Why? Because reasons.

A dinner party. I haven’t had one since December, and I haven’t tackled The Work for the last few weeks, so I went back at it. This time I chose something I could prepare beforehand, so I wouldn’t be in the kitchen for most of the meal. Lamb Curry. I can sous vide the lamb, have the sauce on the stove, and just some quick plating will be all that is necessary. Well, almost.

A main course cooked in 6 minutes? And it’s not stir fry? This sounds like something worth looking into. And all you need is your trusty microwave. The New York Times already has covered the glory of microwaves and the making of this dish, but they were using the recipe from Modernist Cuisine at Homeinstead of the mighty Work. I could work my way through that book – Modernist Cuisine At Home At Home, I suppose – but I’ll save that for someone else. For this one, it’s Book Three, Chapter 11, Page 115. Let’s continue.

Scott and myself have been hanging out with “Rotovap Chris” lately to do further food experiments in our kitchens. We came up with themes for each session so we can focus a bit while having fun. The last two were “Meat and Sweet” and “Cheese Infusions”.

This was going to be a Halloween post but I had trouble with it and had to revisit it later to get it right. I mean, really, nothing says ‘Happy Holidays’ like a champagne glass filled with hot blood pudding custard. Actually, everything does besides that. Anyway, I made hot blood pudding custard.

I haven’t tackled a big recipe in a while, so it was time to consult The Work and give it a shot. I was having guests over and thought the Hungarian Beef Goulash from Volume Five would do the trick. And as usual, it was a lot of work and all sorts of unseen problems presented themselves. From procuring ingredients to equipment breakdowns, timing issues and even a poorly focused camera (as you’ll see – sorry about that), this one barely made it through. But made it through it did.

A few weeks back my brother and his wife came to town to visit and invited my girlfriend and me over to make some apple cider. Well, they didn’t invite us in particular;it was my brother’s wife’s brother’s girlfriend who invited us. Got that? Anyway, we boarded a ferry over to the San Juan Islands to her parent’s place to take part in their Autumn family tradition.